WATCH: Goldman Sachs CEO Bucks Anti-Trump Media with Upbeat 2026 Economic Outlook

Joseph Vazquez
February 19th, 2026 12:42 PM

Last Friday on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the CEO of Goldman Sachs blew a gaping hole in the never-ending media outrage bait about the Trump economy.

Asked by co-host Joe Kernen for his 2026 economic forecast, David Solomon emphatically replied that “the macro setup is quite good,” which shatters doom narratives being promulgated by CNN, The New York Times, and others desperate to make Trumponomics political taboo.

“You have this combination of strong fiscal stimulus in the United States,” Solomon argued. “We have a huge deregulatory swing in the U.S. which is also constructive because when the regulatory pendulum swings hard the other way, people have to invest more in meeting those regulatory obligations.”

When the regulatory pendulum swings back to a deregulatory posture, Solomon explained, “resources can be freed up to invest in more productive parts of the business.” 

In his summation, Trump gutting the overbloated federal regulatory state has provided a “tailwind of economic activity.”

Huh. One could conclude that taking the handcuffs off economic productivity was a good thing!

Solomon highlighted findings by Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius, which projected “2.9 percent real growth this year; five percent nominal.” The consensus, according to Solomon’s estimation of economists’s projections, is that “we could see better than that. So you’ve got really strong tailwinds for good nominal and real growth and I think a lot of deal activity.”

Bolstering Solomon’s optimism was the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s February 13 report showing inflation easing to 2.4 percent, which defied expectations and simultaneously illustrating the muted effects of Trump’s much-maligned tariffs on prices.

So much for all that kerfuffle about an impending “Great Depression,” eh CNN?